I love having the kids pictures professionally taken, who doesn't right? And I try to have them done at least once each year outside of school pictures, usually in the Fall when both kids have just turned a new year older. The problem here is that just a few years ago there were alot of options for places someone like me could take my kids. You see I am super spontaneous and impatient. By this I mean that I may have no thoughts in my head whatsoever to have the kids pictures taken and then all of a sudden... I NEED to have them done now and I want the pictures back right away.
When the kids were babies I would have them done every 3 months for the first year, every 6 months for the second year and the once per year each year after that. It was easy beacuse there were lots of choices (Pro Ex, Ritz, Kiddie Kandid's, Sears, JC Penny's and Target) just off of the top of my head. But in the past couple of years, lifestyle photographers have become really big and little by little the photo shops have been closing their doors. Don't get me wrong, I love the lifestyle photographers, in fact I have several very good friends who are photographers. Unfortunately...those sessions usually don't work well with spontaneus me! And also, there is something I like about the crisp images in front of a backdrop, at least for an annual photo of the kids. You know, kinda like school pictures, except better. I want to be clear though...when it comes to a family shot, I am all about the relaxed lifestyle approach. No Olan Mills family photos for this girl.
A few months ago my Mom was giving me a hard time about the fact that it had been well over a year since I had any photos taken of the kids. She said when her friends at work asked to see the kids she didn't have any nice pictures on her desk to show them. I defended myself with the hundreds of pictures that I take myself and email to her. But, I guess it just isn't the same as when I order the prints after the sitting and hand deliver them to her....all crisp and perfect and...professional. Sigh.
So, I agreed with her point and started calling around to find a place who could take my kids pictures as soon as possible. I realized I was down to just two options...Target or JC Penny's. Can you believe it? That is all that remains! So I went with Target, and scheduled the first appointment of the day in order to minimize the chaos of the visit since they schedule appointments just 10 minutes apart. I don't know about you but with small kids, it just doesn't seem that it is even close to enough time to capture several frame-worthy shots.
Well...we gave it a whirl, and I have to say our photographer was great! The kids cooperated and I got a few pictures for my Mom's desk as well as a few for our home and other family. Once the shoot is over, they show you the images immediately and try to encourage you to buy as many photos as you can right there on the spot. They do this by offering a very reasonable rate and then send you home with access to your images for future orders online with a username and password. This sounds like a totally great idea, you can go home and choose your favorites, ask your family what they like and which size they want..then order. But here is the catch...each sheet is 4 times the price the second you leave the store. Seriously. So, knowing that, I ordered what I thought I needed before I left and that was it. However, once I got home and looked at the images again, and realized I could crop and zoom and enhance them myself...well I wished I would have ordered more. Oh well. I had my chance.
I also have a hard time letting the images I didn't order go. Even though they aren't ideal for framing, they are still my babies!! So I love every last one of them. Mom's are suckers and the photo industry knows it. A mom will buy just about anything once you stick their baby's face on it. Sigh..they even will tease you at the studio when you go to pick up your final prints. They will print out several gigantic sheets of photos of your precious babies with creative formats at a discounted price trying to get you to spend more money. And if you don't buy them...they throw them away! It just seems like such a waste. They will charge you $20 per sheet yet print 4 "extras" just for fun, and just throw them away. Maybe if they stopped wasting they could lower their prices? Just a thought. But still, I never do give in and buy those extra sheets. They are usually pretty cheesy, not the kids of course...but the format of the photos. I am not big on collages or words and borders on my portraits.
But...going back to the short sitting time point. How can one possibly order what they need in 10 minutes with 2 small kids and a slew of people waiting all around for their turn. I guess the ability to relax during the experience is the biggest tradeoff to the need for spontenaity. Oh well...there is always next time.
Since I can't print them all, I decided to save copies from the portrait site of all of the images before they expired so I could still look back at them, and appreciate how little they were and how quickly they are growing. Enjoy....aren't they just the sweetest?
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